Catholic seventh-grader hits high note in 'School of Rock' movie

Published: 2003-10-16

NEW BOSTON, Mich. (CNS) -- Playing the guitar is also the means he uses to pray, said 12-year-old Joey Gaydos Jr., who recently encountered fame through his role as Zack in the current hit movie "School of Rock." Joey, a seventh-grader at St. Stephen Elementary School in New Boston, southwest of Detroit, says he feels the most spiritual when his fingers move across the strings of a guitar. "Jimi Hendrix, (Led) Zeppelin and Ozzy (Osbourne) are my (musical) role models," he told The Michigan Catholic, newspaper of the Detroit Archdiocese. As a result of his 2002 guitar performance at Dayjams, a music camp in Ann Arbor, he won the role of Zack, the lead guitar player in "School of Rock," starring Jack Black. The film was the top ticket at the box office in its first weekend of release. "He's so talented," said his mother, Margie, a parishioner at St. Stephen. "It's funny now to look back. ... Even at age 2 and 3, we have Joey on tape walking around with a toy guitar making up songs, singing 'Hey baby!'"

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